copying-flags-across-projects

Copying feature flags across projects

This skill guides you through duplicating a feature flag from a source project into one or more target projects within the same PostHog organization.

When to use this skill

• The user asks to "copy a flag to another project", "duplicate this flag", or "sync a flag between projects"
• The user wants to promote a flag from a staging project to a production project (or vice versa)
• The user wants to replicate a flag configuration in a different workspace and keep cohort dependencies intact
• The user is working around the absence of true environments by using projects-as-environments

What this skill does not cover

• Cross-organization copy is not supported. The endpoint requires source and target projects to belong to the same org.
• Bulk copying every flag in a project. The tool copies one flag at a time. For batch copies, loop through flag keys; each call is independent.
• Cleaning up old or stale flags — see the cleaning-up-stale-feature-flags skill instead.

Workflow

1. Resolve the source flag

You need the flag's key and the source project's id.

• If the user gave a flag key and a project id, use them directly.
• If the user gave a flag name (e.g. "the new pricing flag"), call posthog:feature-flag-get-all in the source project to find the matching flag and read its key.
• If the user only gave a flag and not a project, ask which project it lives in. Don't assume the active MCP project — copying out of the wrong source is a common foot-gun.

2. Resolve target project ids

Targets must be in the same organization as the source. Call posthog:projects-get to list available projects and confirm membership before issuing the copy.

For a multi-target copy, the tool accepts up to 50 target project ids in a single call. Successes and failures are reported per target, so a partial failure does not block the rest.

3. Preview the source flag and its dependencies

Call posthog:feature-flag-get-definition on the source flag. Then always call posthog:feature-flags-copy-dependencies-check with feature_flag_key, from_project, and target_project_ids, rather than trying to detect dependencies first — it copies nothing, and returns an empty result with no warnings when the flag has none, so running it on every copy is cheap and never skips a real dependency.

A false can_copy_dependencies does not always mean the copy is blocked. It is also false when there is nothing to copy. Report a problem only when warnings is non-empty.

Present a concise summary to the user before copying:

• Flag key, name, and active state in the source
• Filter groups (rollout %, property filters, variant splits)
• Any cohort references in filters.groups[].properties[] — these will be remapped server-side, but the user should know whether the target project already has matching cohorts
• Whether the flag has encrypted payloads (has_encrypted_payloads) or is remote configuration (is_remote_configuration)
• Whether scheduled changes exist (the user can opt to copy them in step 4)
• The dependency check's copied_dependency_keys (dependencies a copy would create in a target), reused_dependency_keys (dependencies a target already satisfies), and any warnings

4. Confirm copy options

One confirmation covers all three options. Default to the safest combination and ask the user to override only if they explicitly want different behavior:

• disable_copied_flag: true — the copied flag lands disabled in the target. Recommended by default; turning a flag on in a new project should be a deliberate, observed action.
• copy_schedule: false — scheduled changes do not come along. Recommended by default; schedules are usually project-specific.
• copy_dependencies: false — dependency flags do not come along. Set it to true only when the user approves copying the keys step 3's check reported.

If the user says "promote it as-is" or "turn it on in prod", switch disable_copied_flag to false. If they say "include the rollout schedule" or "with the scheduled rollout", switch copy_schedule to true.

5. Execute the copy

Call posthog:feature-flags-copy-flags-create with:

• feature_flag_key: the source flag's key
• from_project: the source project id
• target_project_ids: the resolved list of target project ids
• disable_copied_flag: from step 4 (default true)
• copy_schedule: from step 4 (default false)
• copy_dependencies: from step 4 (default false). Omitting it silently skips dependency copying, even when the user approved it.

6. Report per-target outcome

The response includes a success array (one entry per copied flag) and a failed array (per-target errors). Surface both:

• For each success: target project id, the new flag's id, and its active state in the target.
• For each failure: target project id and the error message. Common causes are missing editor access on the target team, or the flag already existing as a non-overridable resource in the target.

If any targets failed, ask the user whether to retry the failed ones, skip them, or fix the underlying issue (e.g. grant access, then retry).

Important notes

• Cohorts are remapped automatically. When the source flag references a cohort, the endpoint creates or reuses an equivalent cohort in each target project and rewrites the flag's filters to point at the target-project cohort id. You don't need to handle this — but tell the user it's happening so they understand the new cohorts that may appear in the target.
• Encrypted payloads are preserved. Remote-configuration flags with encrypted payloads keep their encryption when copied; the payload is re-encrypted under the target project's key.
• Scheduled changes copy with cohort remap too. If copy_schedule: true, any scheduled cohort references are remapped just like the live filter conditions.
• Auth requirements. The user's API key must include explicit feature_flag:write (or feature_flag:*) scope. A *-only key will be rejected — this endpoint is gated by an INTERNAL viewset and * consent does not satisfy it. Team-scoped keys cannot reach this endpoint either; an org-scoped or unscoped key is required.
• Editor access on the source. The user must have at least editor-level access on the source flag's team. The endpoint enforces this via PostHog's access control before copying.
• Per-target access on targets. Targets the user can't see are silently dropped from the result; targets they can see but lack edit rights on appear in the failed array with a permission error.
• No undo. A copy creates a new flag in the target (or overwrites an existing flag with the same key). Always confirm with the user before issuing the copy, especially when the target is a production project.

Example interaction

User: Copy the new-checkout flag from project 12345 to project 67890.

Agent: Looking at the source flag in project 12345.

(calls posthog:feature-flag-get-definition)

The new-checkout flag is currently a boolean at 25% rollout in project 12345, with no cohort filters and no scheduled changes. I'll copy it as disabled in project 67890 with no scheduled changes — this is the safer default. Confirm?

User: Yes, but enable it in the target.

Agent: Got it — enabling in the target.

(calls posthog:feature-flags-copy-flags-create with disable_copied_flag: false, copy_schedule: false)

Done. Created flag id 99887 in project 67890 (active: true). No failed targets.

Available tools

• posthog:feature-flags-copy-flags-create — performs the copy. Required fields: feature_flag_key, from_project, target_project_ids. Optional: disable_copied_flag, copy_schedule, copy_dependencies.
• posthog:feature-flags-copy-dependencies-check — previews what a copy would do to the flag's transitive flag dependencies. Copies nothing. Call it before every copy; it returns an empty result when the flag has no dependencies.
• posthog:feature-flag-get-all — find a flag by key/name in a given project when the user only gave a friendly name.
• posthog:feature-flag-get-definition — fetch the full source flag (filters, variants, cohort references, encryption flags) so you can preview before copying.
• posthog:projects-get — list projects in the active organization, used to resolve and validate target project ids.